Job Applicant Privacy Policy and Notice

This privacy policy sets out how Age Connects Torfaen (ACT) uses and protects any information that you give the organisation as a job applicant.

As part of any recruitment process, ACT collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. ACT is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

ACT may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

ACT may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. ACT will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in our HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does ACT process personal data?

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which an organisation may collect and process your personal data, including:

Contractual:

ACT needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

Legal compliance:

In some cases, ACT needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

Legitimate interest:

In other cases, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our organisation and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. ACT has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows ACT to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. ACT may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

ACT may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where ACT processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, ACT is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Consent:

In specific situations, ACT can collect and process your data with your consent.

If your application is unsuccessful, ACT may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. ACT will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to personal data?

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes HR and members of the recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers and board members in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

ACT will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The organisation will then share your data with the following:

its third party HR provider to obtain an offer letter and contract of employment;

the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

In those circumstances the data will be subject to confidentiality arrangements.

If we transfer your personal information to another country, we'll take appropriate measures to protect your privacy and the personal information we transfer.

How does the organisation protect personal data?

ACT takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.

Where ACT engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

For how long does ACT keep personal data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, ACT will hold your data on file for one year after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period, your data is deleted or destroyed.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

access and obtain a copy of your data on request;

require ACT to change incorrect or incomplete data;

require ACT to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and

object to the processing of your data where ACT is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

Contacting the Regulator

If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can contact them by calling 0303 123 1113.

Or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we can't be responsible for the content of external websites)

Checking your identity

To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to ACT during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, ACT may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

Automated decision-making

Job applicant decisions are not based solely on automated decision-making.

Amendments

This privacy policy may be amended from time to time consistent with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation. We will communicate any changes to you.